Children at Play
by miethra songweaver
Summary: They've been together for a year now, and with their anniversary around the corner, Renji and Akaya should be the happiest couple in the world right now. However, a mistake is made and things get a little complicated. Or did it? [For Roey Cleine]


disclaimer: PoT is not mine, as you all well know... :D

note: this is written for Roey Cleine who requested for a YanaKiri fic last year... I'm sorry I took so long... please enjoy!

* * *

**Children at Play**

Renji watched speechlessly as Akaya turned to walk down the way he came as soon as he saw him. This wasn't the first time in days he'd done it, and despite the nonchalant air Renji put up about himself, it hurt him deeply to see the boy avoiding him so deliberately.

It wasn't right. _This_ wasn't right.

The first time it had happened he had thought it was his own imagination. Then it happened a second time, a third time, a fourth…Until it was no longer possible to brush it off as a trick of the eye.

It hurt, it really did, and it wasn't until that moment that Renji fully registered the extent of his feelings towards his kouhai. Previously he had hesitated to call it anything more than "deep affection", but now that he was sure of himself, he was no longer able to tell it to the one person who truly mattered.

How ironic.

He had asked his teammates for advice, but almost unsurprisingly they weren't of much help either. Marui had raised a critical eyebrow at his predicament, Niou had thwacked him soundly on the back of his head when he heard and even Sanada had frowned at him with disapproval at his story. "Can't you just call him?" Yagyuu had suggested in his usual matter-of-fact tone and was thwacked on the head by Niou too. Jackal tried to say something but was immediately silenced by one of Marui's _dark_ looks.

Yukimura had been the only sympathetic one, smiling his gentle smile as he laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, but even he refrained from giving him counsel of any kind. In Renji's opinion, Yukimura and his knowing smile frustrated him much more than the others ever did.

He wondered why.

"He's not going to come back for class until you go away, Yanagi," Marui deadpanned from somewhere behind him. "Not to mention that sensei's going to scream his head off if you miss his class again," he added absently as he burst a green bubble. They weren't from the same class, but they had combined Chemistry lessons on Tuesdays.

With a last wistful look down the corridor- or as wistful as he could manage without really opening his eyes- Renji turned to return to class with Marui, who was rolling his eyes so dramatically that it wouldn't be much of a surprise if they got stuck at one point or another.

* * *

It all began almost two weeks ago, when Renji first brought up the topic of their anniversary, which would take place two weeks later- i.e. _this_ week.

He had intended for it to be an opportunity to do some _discreet_ data-gathering on how Akaya would want to celebrate such a special day, and in turn come up with the perfect idea for the anniversary. They had been officially dating for a year now, and the idea of an anniversary excited him tremendously, as impossible as it sounded.

Rather illogical, and irrational, if you asked him, but matters of the heart, he had found over the year, was rather more of an anomaly which couldn't be categorized neatly under any form of logical thought. Therefore he had stopped attempting to cross-reference between numbers and data reports every time he came across something he couldn't understand in the course of his interaction with Akaya; he simply attributed it to the abnormal nature of such feelings of deep affection and left it at that.

"So, Akaya, about our imminent one-year anniversary…" he had begun as they sat down to lunch in the school canteen. He hadn't realized what he had said until he saw the colour drain out of Akaya's face. Which only served to fluster him. "I mean, hypothetically speaking, what would you like… how would you…"

Okay. So maybe he hadn't been as discreet as he had planned to be, but Akaya didn't have to look so horrified as he started out of his seat and ran all the way back to his classroom where he remained for the rest of the day.

At first, he had thought that it wasn't much of a big deal as they'd had similar spats- and a fair share of misunderstanding as well- before; a day or two was all it took for Akaya to calm down and listen to reason. As such, the idea that Akaya would deliberately avoid him out of anger for such a long period of time never crossed his mind.

Two weeks! That's fourteen days!

Just what had he done wrongly? Did his lack of tact really deserve such a severe punishment? Just because he hadn't been as romantic and perceptive as he should?

"Actually, yeah," Marui had answered accusingly in utmost annoyance. And there hadn't been any need for Renji to ask around to know that his other teammates shared Marui's sentiments; the condemnation in their eyes told it all.

* * *

Yukimura smiled his customary long-suffering smile as he watched Renji finish up his second box of tissue that night while sloppily wrapping up a leather-bound notebook. He handed Renji his third box for the night and looked as if he was dying to do the wrapping for him. A little further away from them, Sanada sat on the floor glowering darkly with his arms crossed rigidly before him.

It had been a tradition they'd established ever since middle school to take turns sleeping over at one other's place once a week; but tonight was obviously not going to be anything like any of them was used to. They were supposed to be talking about tennis and school and laughing about teachers, not watching Renji weep himself silly as he prepared his present for _the_ big day tomorrow.

"For goodness sake, pull yourself together, Renji," Sanada forced through gritted teeth, unable to take it any longer. "Stop sniffling like a girl."

"Genichirou!" Yukimura snapped at him in reprimand while he patted Renji soothingly on the head. "You're a fine one to talk when you're probably ten times worse than he is when we first started dating!"

_Ouch_. That must hurt.

Midnight blue eyes flashed and an involuntary yelp escaped Sanada, whose face darkened even more in attempt to preserve his shattered dignity. Blowing his nose on yet another piece of tissue, Renji stored the information carefully away in his mind for documentation on a happier day.

Right now, his objective was to wrap this notebook up nicely, with ribbons and all, for tomorrow.

It was a very pretty book, with a chocolate brown leather cover and cream-coloured paper inside; it was also a very special notebook to Renji. It was a diary, one that Renji opened on the very first day of his relationship with Akaya, and faithfully written in every single day since then, documenting all the figures and statistics he'd collected- and observations he'd made- on their relationship as well as his feelings towards Akaya, which he felt were far more important than any of the figures he'd written down in the book.

It had become an integral part of him, a part of the Yanagi Renji whom no one had ever seen, and he would give it all to Akaya. And even as he tried pathetically to tape the wrapping paper down, he realized that it had been the sole reason he'd begun the diary in the first place- to be able to give the most important part of him away to the person who mattered the most.

To give the most important part of him to Akaya because there wasn't anyone in the world who would ever matter more to him than his precious, precious Akaya.

Not like it was going to make much of a difference now.

"Now, now, Renji. I'm sure everything will work out just fine. Akaya will definitely appreciate this," Yukimura said as he finally rescued the notebook from Renji's clumsy hands and started to rewrap it tenderly with a new sheet of wrapping paper. "He really is just a child, you know," he added fondly, and smiled secretively to himself.

From where he was sitting, Sanada saw the strange smile but decided against asking about it in favour of preserving his current death glare.

* * *

Renji stared stupidly in his pajamas at Akaya, who was presently at his doorstep with a carefully wrapped packet of something hugged protectively to his chest.

"Good afternoon senpai… Did I wake you up or something?" Bright green eyes flashed uncertainly as the younger boy chewed nervously on his lower lip.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Renji promptly shook his head. "No, not really. I was just…"

"Crying himself silly," Sanada supplied dryly from the living room where he was munching on some Poky sticks while channel-surfing on tv. Yukimura whacked him squarely in the face with a cushion.

"I was just doing some data entry," Renji lied, glad for once that his eyes were too small to be seen; one couldn't tell if he's been crying at all.

"Oh, I see." Akaya started fidgeting as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. The more rational part of Renji wondered if he should ask Akaya to come in and have a drink, but for the most part he was still too stunned by Akaya's appearance to do anything besides opening and shutting his mouth like a fish out of water.

For a moment there was an awkward silence and Sanada could be heard snorting inside.

There were so many things he wanted to ask Akaya, and so much more he needed to tell him! And now that Akaya had come to see him, maybe, just maybe, it wasn't too late…

It couldn't be…

"I'm sorry senpai!" Akaya suddenly blurted out, head bowed and eyes shut in panic. "I'm so sorry! I really tried very hard, but… I can't… I just can't do it!" With a strangled yelp, he thrust the packet towards Renji. "I really tried, I really did, but I just couldn't make it. Forgive me senpai!"

Renji felt as if he had just been dowsed with a dozen buckets of icy water.

_Akaya…_

Renji felt his legs giving way under him and reached out to grab the door knob for support. His vision spun and swirled till he couldn't really see anymore.

_Just what was Akaya saying? He couldn't mean…_

So this was it?

_Akaya…_

"I wanted to make you so proud of me, and I tried so hard- I even got Yukimura-buchou to help me!- but I still couldn't make the grade in the end… I'm so sorry senpai!"

_Akaya… his Aka… _

Huh?

What grade?

Renji's head snapped up in confusion as Akaya rambled on.

"I wanted to give you something really special for our anniversary, but I just couldn't think of anything until Minami-sensei told us about the Maths test, and I thought that I'd score the first 'A' in my whole life for you, especially since you love Maths so much and are always telling me to work on my Maths. So I worked really, really hard and even asked buchou for tuition but I still ended up with a 'B'! I'm so, so sorry, senpai! I… I…"

He was almost crying, and his lip was turning so red that it was going to be broken anytime soon.

_Huh?_

"Oh, I see," Renji replied stupidly. "So… that's why you've been avoiding me? Because you... scored a 'B' for your test?"

Akaya nodded emphatically.

_Huh?_

"Oh."

Pause.

_Huh?_

"Oh."

Pause.

_Huh?!_

"Oh!" Renji threw his arms around Akaya as the words finally sank in. "So you're not angry with me? So you're not leaving me?"

"Huh?" Akaya blinked at the rare and sudden display of affection. "Why would I be angry at you?" he asked in sheer puzzlement as he snuggled against his senpai's shoulder.

"Because I was so tactless in bringing our anniversary up…"

Akaya blinked owlishly. "Were you? I didn't notice."

Renji felt the worry that'd been gnawing at him for the past two weeks drain out of him as he hugged Akaya even closer to him, if indeed that was possible. And for the second time within that week, Renji fully understood what an integral part Akaya had become to his existence.

* * *

"EHH?! You though I was avoiding you because you weren't romantic enough?!" Akaya exclaimed as he started out of his chair, almost knocking over his cup in the process. "What kind of stupid are you, senpai?!" Bright green eyes flashed in bewilderment as Akaya tried to process the information.

Renji looked at him ruefully. "Well, what was I to think? You refused to talk to me, refused to see me, refused to answer my calls… Naturally I had to conclude that you were no longer interested in me, and the only obvious reason would be my tactlessness…"

"But you are the most romantic person I'd ever known!" Akaya exclaimed passionately as he clutched the notebook to his chest. "This notebook just proves it all, senpai!"

Renji wasn't very sure why, but a warm fuzzy feeling had started to spread through the whole of him; and he liked it.

"Thank you, Akaya," he said softly, deeply moved.

Akaya beamed as he threw himself onto Renji. "Happy anniversary, senpai!"

Renji turned to kiss the younger boy lightly on the cheek.

"Happy anniversary, _love_."

From where they were sitting by the tv, Yukmura cooed as his best friend and favourite kouhai literally kissed and made up.

"I should have known it was you behind this," Sanada commented dryly as he spared an approving look at the loving couple out of the corner of his eyes. "Trust you to put Renji through so much trouble for nothing."

Yukimura turned in mock indignation. "Genichirou! Don't you think I've made things much sweeter between them?"

Sanada blinked owlishly. "Not really. I think you just enjoy making others needlessly miserable by abusing your knowledge of what they don't know."

Yukimura burst into laughter at this point and threw his arms around Sanada. "But don't you think Akaya really is like a child? Fancy avoiding your lover just because you screwed up your test!"

Sanada raised a critical eyebrow as he held up three fingers before Yukimura's face. "Well. One, they're not exactly lovers yet. And two, that test isn't just a test to him Seiichi, and you know it. And three, I don't think Akaya is the only child in the relationship, do you?"

Yukimura tilted his head to one side as he thought about it for a fraction of a second before bursting into another bout of laughter.

"No, of course not."

* * *

**A/N: **Hi all! I admit that this is a little different from my usual writing which is dark and tragic and painful, but I have no qualms admitting that I do have a soft spot for happy, crackish and fluffy fics. :D This is my first attempt at writing a full-length fluff-fic, and the fact that it's also slightly crackish amuses me. I hope you guys found reading this enjoyable as I found writing it. XD

And to Roey Cleine, I really have no idea if this is something you're looking for when you sent me the request. But I sincerely hope you enjoyed this. XD


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